Christmas Days

On Christmas Eve we had the missionaries from our church come over and also a man from Rwanda. Günter made his families traditional potato salad, wursts and boiled eggs and we added smoked salmon.

Afterwards we sang some Christmas hymns and told the story from Luke 2 and the kids acted it out in their costumes from our church party. It impressed Niki because he still talks about "no room for baby Jesus". Then we opened presents. The kids were very excited to see presents under the tree and loved passing them out to everyone.

After they went to bed and we cleaned up after the dinner and guests, we got the gifts out and put the other presents under the tree and went to bed.

There is nothing like kids excitement about Santa coming to the house and leaving gifts. When they woke up we reminded them and went down. So much fun for all.

Just because there isn't a picture of me, doesn't mean I didn't get anything. Günter got me an MP3 player.

That whole day was spent in our jammies and being relaxed watching movies and snacking. It was nice.

on 26 December we headed to Günter's parents home after the kids woke up from their naps. We had our family gift exchange but there was a mistake and Günter's sister never got a gift and I got two. Later we found Günter sent his bothers gift to the wrong address (they couldn't come) and they didn't get theirs. Off on a tangent, we had bad luck with postal systems this holiday because my Aunt sent a package of precious bibs and they didn't arrive for 6 weeks!

Anyhow, Niki loved the car track he got, but honestly I think Günter believed it was more for him! (They say that men get their 2nd childhood when they have kids.)

We then had the cake and such. Here is Jenna with her great grandma:

The extended family was all there--Günter's Aunts and Uncles and their kids (Günter's cousins) and kids. Günter's mother was waiting for them all to leave to get dinner for the rest of us but some came late so they didn't leave until 8:30 P.M.!!!! So we never got dinner and had to leave then too (and that was later than we planned either). I wondered if the dinner was delayed since Doris has troubles with setting limits and Niki was dragging her all over the house and giving her so much attention that she was absorbed with it and forgot the meal.

There was one other scandal too. There is a family secret that no one that isn't in a certain level of intimacy in the family are allowed to go to the upstairs of the house since it is so messy that I would consider it a health hazard (and infact later Günter's sibling told us they found a dead mouse when they went to bed the night before). Well, my kids insisted on dragging 3 women up there that were no suppose to see it (Günter's posh cousin, his brothers new girlfriend and a cousin's new girlfriend). My kids are causing all kinds of havoc in the family.

So that was the holiday so far.

On Thursday I took advantage of having Günter around to watch the kids and went to the hair dresser. The day before I put highlights in my hair (so I looked a bit better for Günter's family) but the hair dresser confronted me and asked if I did it myself. Of course I said yes. Then I went to a spa. I have needed a pedicure (26 euros) for a long time. I have horrible callouses on my large toes and my heels are so dry that I hate how they feel on the sheet in bed. So I got that done and a parafin wax treatment (12 euros)to make them especially soft. It was expensive (and in euros so if you consider the exchange rate it was even worse). And I thought since I was there to get a facial. They talked me into this algea one (for 39 euros). Well I thought the pedicure was pricey but the facial a rip off! It seemed she washed my face with what seemed like Mary Kay face wash and then put a refeshener on then a "mask" (more like a scrub) then the algea mask (on for 30 minutes). Afterward I didn't feel like I had more energy in my face and the black heads are still there (do I have to take them out myself now?). It just makes me sick to spend money foolishly.

Then I went to a friend's house (who is in the states) and made a fire and watched TV, read books and relaxed in the sauna and finally went to bed on the tempur bed. I wish I could say I woke up so relaxed but I didn't.

Then I returned home to a messy house and after we got the kids ready for a dinner we were invited to they cancelled so we took the kids out shopping. Woo Hoo.

Tomorrow I think we will take them to the swimming pool.

There you have it--that's the holidays so far!

Posted by Krista at December 28, 2007 09:27 PM